Conventional piston and cylinder machines can be relatively large and heavy, especially those designed to highly pressurize gases and vapors. Each piston must make a reciprocating movement and, therefore, the energy requirements are relatively large.
This invention is also related to applicant's previous U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,073, issued Dec. 20, 1983. In that patent, there is disclosed a rotary internal combustion engine wherein the cylinders are chambers in a rotor and the crankshaft is laterally offset from the axis of the rotor. In this way, the pistons are subjected to simple rotation. However, both the crankshaft and the rotor are rotating and must be synchronized.
It has been found possible to considerably simplify the mechanism of the above-noted patent.